UC Merced professor Kara McCloskey was recently awarded a highly competitive $500,000 grant to continue research in human stem cell biology, as part of an effort to enhance stem cell research in California.

In February, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine approved more than $27million for Basic Biology V Awards, and McCloskeys grant is included. The leads for this effort include Stanford University and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

In her laboratory, McCloskey and her students are using stem cells to engineer cardiovascular tissues that could someday be used to repair damaged blood vessels or heart tissue.

Specifically, they are producing highly specialized cells that have not been the focus of much research to date the endothelial cells found at the tips and in the stalks, including phalanx endothelial cells, of blood vessels and cells that could help repair a damaged heart.

The phalanx cells exhibit anti-inflammatory properties, and the ones in the tips and stalks contribute to angiogenesis, the new growth of blood vessels, said McCloskey, who teachers in the School of Engineering.

The two-year grant will help support her laboratory, including five undergrads, five graduate students and one post-doctoral scholar as they gather the data that takes them to the next step building 3-D models of the vessels through which fluid can flow.

Before implantation, we will first build and test the functional blood vessels to make sure they work properly, she said.

Stem cell research has made huge strides since California made the research part of its constitutional right with the passage of Proposition 71 in 2004. But there are still issues with getting the human body to accept the new cells, even once the specialized cells are physically available to repair damaged and-or diseased cells and tissue.

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Stem cell research gets $500,000 boost